CHAMPCAR/CART: Montreal: Pre-race notes, schedule

WHO'S HOT
A.J. Allmendinger ( ...

WHO'S HOT

A.J. Allmendinger (#7 INDECK Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) got
his season back on track when he recorded his fourth victory of the
season in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains of Denver. The American
started his day on the outside of the front row and lurked behind
Sebastien Bourdais until Lap 48 when he saw his opportunity and pounced.
Allmendinger retook the lead after the last round of pit stops and never
looked back, leading a total of 45 laps during the day. In Montreal
Allmendinger has one Champ Car Atlantic victory to his credit. His best
start and finish came at the 2004 event when Allmendinger started the
day on the outside pole, led ten laps, and finished in fifth.

Rookie contender Dan Clarke (#14 CTE Racing-HVM
Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) scored his first Champ Car podium with
a third-place run in Denver. Clarke is now just 16 championship points
away from a berth in the top 10 in the season standings.

Will Power (#5 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone)
continues to impress and has built a 22-point lead in the Roshfrans
Rookie-of-the-Year standings, protecting his advantage with a
career-high fourth-place finish in Denver two weeks ago.

In Denver, Charles Zwolsman (#34 Mi-Jack Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone)
scored his career-best fourth consecutive top-10 finish, second-longest
of the season by a rookie. Last year in Atlantic Series competition
Zwolsman started the day in the fifth position before recording a
sixth-place finish.

CTE Racing-HVM had quite a strong showing in Denver having both of
their drivers finish in the top-five. A third-place performance by Dan
Clarke, coupled with a fifth-place run by teammate Nelson Philippe(#4
CTE Racing-HVM Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) , allowed the team to
see both its cars finish in the top five for the first time since Mario
Dominguez and Ryan Hunter-Reay completed the feat at Australia in 2004.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Oriol Servia (#6 Gulfstream Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) returns
to the site of his first Champ Car victory this weekend, heading to
Montreal as the defending race winner. Servia became just the 10th
driver in the last 59 years of Champ Car racing to win a race by leading
only the final lap of competition. In his last three appearances at the
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve Servia has yet to start or finish outside of
the top ten.

Alex Tagliani (#15 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone)
has the most experience of any driver in the field on the 2.709-mile
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Tagliani has four Champ Car starts as well as
four Atlantic starts on the Quebec racetrack. He won the pole and led a
race-high 52 laps in the Champ Car event in 2003, and won from pole in
the 1999 Atlantic race.

Mario Dominguez (#19 Sonny's Bar-B-Q Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) has
three consecutive top-10 results in Montreal including a podium run in
2004 where he finished third after starting on the inside of the second
row.

Bruno Junqueira (#2 Hole In The Wall Camps
Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) missed last year's Montreal event but
comes back this year as a returning race winner. The Brazilian came
from fourth on the grid to win in 2004, leading 25 laps en route to the
victory.

Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonalds Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) has
won back-to-back pole positions in Montreal and holds the event record
for most laps led in a single race (59) and total (85), but has yet to
finish on the podium in the Canadian city.

NOTEWORTHY

Sebastien Bourdais, A.J. Allmendinger and Justin Wilson are the only
drivers to win Champ Car races this year through nine events. The record
for fewest winners in a season is three, that coming in 1964 when A.J.
Foyt won 10 of 13 races while Parnelli Jones (two) and Lloyd Ruby (one)
shared the other three.

Nelson Philippe scored a fifth-place finish in Denver, marking the
first time in his young Champ Car career that he has scored consecutive
top-five results.

The Champ Car World Series crested the 1,000,000 mark in attendance for
2006 after drawing more than 155,000 fans in San Jose.

Dan Clarke's third-place finish in Denver made him the 11th driver this
season to earn a berth on the podium. Clarke is the only rookie to have
finished on the podium this season.

Paul Tracy's penalty of seven championship points stemming from an
incident in San Jose made him the second driver this season to have
points deducted from his total. Mario Dominguez also lost seven points
for his actions in Milwaukee. This is the first time since 2000 (Oriol
Servia, Michael Andretti) that two drivers have been penalized with the
loss of points in the same season.

Justin Wilson leads the Bridgestone Passion For Excellence Award after
10 races, pacing Will Power by nearly three seconds. Wilson would be the
first person other than Sebastien Bourdais to win the award in this, the
fourth year that the honor has been given.

Bruno Junqueira's win in Monterrey last season gave him victories in
each of his first five seasons as a Champ Car driver. A win this season
would make the Newman/Haas Racing pilot the first driver since Bobby
Rahal (1982-87) to earn wins in each of his first six years in the
series.

In the Nation's Cup standings, France has run out to a 24-point lead
over England after 10 events. The U.S., carried by lone American A.J.
Allmendinger, is third, 10 behind England.

DID YOU KNOW?

Montreal, is the second largest city in Canada and the largest city in
the province of Quebec. It is known as the francophone Metropolis of
North America and nicknamed "The City of Saints" due to the many streets
starting with the name "Saint". With the rise of Gilles-Villeneuve,
French Canada wanted to build a race track so that they could watch
their native son race in Quebec, after Mont-Tremblant was deemed unsafe.
So, the idea of making the Island into a racetrack was born. In October
of 1978 the first race was held on the circuit and it has hosted at
least one race a year since then. A particularly famous part of the
circuit is the wall on the outside of the exit of the final chicane.
In 1999 the wall, which has on it the slogan Bienvenue au Quebec
giving it the nickname "Mur du Quebec" (Quebec Wall), ended the race
of three Formula One World Champions, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher &
Jacques Villeneuve. Since then the wall has been nicknamed "The Wall of
Champions".

BY THE NUMBERS

85 -- The number of laps Sebastien Bourdais has led in Montreal, the
most of any driver. 25- How many laps A.J. Allmendinger led on the way
to his Champ Car Atlantic Victory in 2003. 9 -- How many points separate
fourth and tenth in the point standings. 3 -- The most times a yellow
flag has come out during the Grand Prix of Montreal. 2 -- How many times
a rookie has led laps in the Grand Prix of Montreal (A.J. Allmendinger,
2004 and Timo Glock, 2005) 1 -- How many laps Oriol Servia led on his
way to last year's victory in the Grand Prix of Montreal.

RACE ROUND: 11 of 14 in the 2006 Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car
World Series Powered by Ford.

INSTANT REPLAY: Oriol Servia became only the 10th driver dating back
to 1946 to win a Champ Car race while leading only the last lap of the
race, but the Spaniard was more than deserving of his first-ever Champ
Car victory. Servia took the win over rookie Timo Glock, taking the lead
when Glock was forced by Champ Car Stewards to cede the position to the
Newman/Haas driver after shortcutting the frontstretch chicane twice
during the waning laps. Sebastien Bourdais had been the strongest pilot
all day long, leading 59 laps from the pole, but a rare misstep on a
late pit stop dropped him out of contention. Glock moved into the lead,
inheriting the spot when he fortuitously pitted ahead of a late-race
caution, and paced 19 of the last 20 laps on his way to a career-best
second place finish. Justin Wilson rounded out the podium by finishing
third. The race had been run caution-free for the first 57 laps before a
string of incidents scrambled the order. Paul Tracy lost nine spots by
pitting too close to the wall and A.J. Allmendinger lost his chance at
victory when he entered a closed pit to fix a cut tire. Tracy ended his
day in eighth while Allmendinger followed him in ninth.